Waking Life
by Elf Asato
Summary: [2x3, 1x2] Duo is forced to deal with waking life.


**Title:** Waking Life  
**Author:** Elf Asato  
**Summary:** [2x3, 1x2] Duo has to face the realities of waking life...  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine whatsoever.  
**Notes:** This is actually my first piece of Gundam Wing fanfiction in _years_...  
  


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**Waking Life**  
_By Elf Asato_  
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A penny had been thrown into the water and made a dull _thunk_ before it sank down to the bottom, joining its brethren at the floor of the wishing pond.  
  
"You're supposed to make a wish now, Trowa," Duo smiled as he gently placed a hand on his friend's back. He watched Trowa's eyes intensify for a brief second before lapsing into a twinkling softness.  
  
He answered slowly, keeping his eyes - those beautiful, green eyes - on the pond, "I already have."  
  
"Then what is it?"  
  
"I can't tell you."  
  
Duo was playfully disappointed as his hand crossed over to Trowa's waist, and he held him closer, leaning his cheek on a cool arm. "Why not?"  
  
"Because if I tell you, it might not come true," was all Trowa said as he leaned over to kiss the top of the other's head, and Duo left it at that.

* * *

"Who wants paprika _Huhn_ and _Wurst_?" Hilde cheerfully laughed as she and Catherine brought in dishes that both smelled and looked wonderful. They set everything in the middle of a squarish table surrounded by a few co-workers and friends.  
  
"Hey, I'll have that thing that _looks_ like chicken," Duo answered, winking at his best friend, "and hopefully _tastes_ like it as well."  
  
Hilde smiled and teased, "The _Huhn_ or _Wurst_?"  
  
"The chicken," Duo answered as she laughed and obliged him.  
  
Catherine took a seat by her brother, and Hilde followed suit and sat next to her. With everyone seated, it was beginning to look more and more like the close friendly gathering they had always wanted to have.  
  
Trowa leaned close and asked of his sister, "...Which is which?"  
  
"Wurst is the sausage and Huhn is the chicken," Catherine answered, and in reply to her brother's next question of why Hilde didn't just call the food sausage and chicken respectively, she said, "...Just humor her, Trowa." And then she passed him the sausage.  
  
Manager, who was seated at the head of the table, proposed a toast. "To the circus," he said as he held up a beer can - a reminder of the classy establishment of Catherine's trailer they were in.  
  
"And a nice fiscal year," added another friend, the accountant who was in charge of all the finances, as he joined Manager.  
  
"To good hot dogs," Duo, who had taken a side job of hot dog vendor at the circus, announced as he put his beer can forth.  
  
Trowa finished as he took part in the toast, "And no injuries."  
  
"But to the most important thing of all," Catherine said as she put her glass of water into the mix and looked at her brother and the hot dog vendor meaningfully. "To love."  
  
"To love," Hilde added as she followed suit. Then they drank.

* * *

"You okay still?" Duo asked as he looked over to Trowa, who lay beside him in their bed. "It still doesn't hurt, does it?"  
  
Trowa shook his head. "Not really."  
  
"So...what happened?"  
  
"The bar just...slipped out of my hands..." he murmured and closed his eyes.  
  
Duo didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Trowa just didn't want to talk about it; he never fell during an act, not even in practice. Had he not been so close to the ground at the time, Duo was fully aware of the fact that Trowa could have died...  
  
There was silence between them for a few seconds as Duo attempted to sleep off his worry, before Trowa said, "Hey."  
  
"What?"  
  
"At the wishing pond...I wished that we could be together like this always, for _this_ to never change."  
  
"...Trowa, you weren't supposed to tell me that..."  
  
It wouldn't be a good night for sleep.

* * *

Duo groggily woke up from his sleep, rubbing his face and desperately wishing it wasn't as late as he thought it was. He then rolled over and draped his arm around Trowa's sleeping form.  
  
Only...it wasn't Trowa.  
  
That's right...it was all a dream. It wasn't real.  
  
He watched Heero stir slightly, as if fighting off Duo's very touch, but it was short-lived as the pilot lapsed back into sleep. In sharp contrast to his waking self, a sleeping Heero was a peaceful Heero, a _content_ Heero. It was the _real_ Heero, someone never seen outside of dreamland. Not by Relena, not by Duo, not ever.  
  
Though the dream threw him off, Duo remembered his waking life again. He remembered their dank and cramped apartment, their struggles every day to cope with returning to civilian life. It's a difficult thing for those who only remember how to fight.  
  
Duo...had difficulty adjusting to civilian life. Sure, he seemed fine on the outside, but he rarely was within. The questions he had never seemed answerable by him or anyone else. It confused him, made him upset... Though he never showed it. No, he never let anyone see what went on inside. Not even Heero, who never let anyone see inside either.  
  
Other former soldiers seemed to cope, well, though. Wufei went off on his own after the wars, studying everything and writing as a studious scholar. Quatre was engaged in a high-profile romance to the daughter of a wealthy businessman. He did a good job, managing the Winner Corporation and keeping up with his friends, old and new. Though...over time a distance - some sort of rift - grew between Quatre and his old friends, the pilots. It was something no one besides Duo seemed to notice, though...  
  
Trowa...well, Trowa was happy living life in the circus with Catherine, but for some reason, that unsettled Duo.  
  
It just seemed like...things weren't as they should be, and as he looked at the back of Heero's sleeping form, he thought to himself, _had something gone wrong?_

**End**


End file.
